Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Transformation in Mission: Part 2

Inclusive Evangelism - Part 2

So how does Daniel Kikawa present God to the Japanese, Korean’s or Chinese, etc.? Speaking of the Korean culture, he says, “but when the protestant missionaries came in decades later and, and used the name of Hananim, all of a sudden there was great excitement, that our God sent his son for us, Y’know, and so its not a foreign God anymore - our God,” (“Word to the World” interview by Danny Lehmann with Daniel Kikawa Feb.13, 2006, #6).

His message and method is explained in his book Perpetuated in Righteousness, “Instead of destroying and ridiculing the native names of the Creator God, we should help preserve them as a legacy for these peoples."

“Christians should cease representing Jesus as the Son of the foreign God of a foreign people. We should instead introduce Jesus as the Son of their creator God.” (p.27, Perpetuated in Righteousness 4th ed.)

The Premise - The Creator God of the Bible is not a foreign god of these nations - their god sent his son. That “God” was involved in forming their culture. Give them the “God” they already worshipped and they will accept the message that their “God” is God who had a son (that is Jesus).

It should be immediately obvious to any student of the Bible what he has done. If Jesus is the son of their creator “God,” in their culture-then he is no longer Jewish. Then God’s special revelation to Israel is diminished or removed (Romans 3:1-2). You then have a different Jesus, and certainly a different God. Which produces a different Gospel (Gal.1:6-9; 2 Cor. 11:3-4). This becomes a replacement theology of a different sort.

In his video, God’s Fingerprints in Japan, he speaks of “Three Deities performed the commencement of creation” and compares this to the Trinity in Genesis 1:1-2. “Amenominakanushi is flanked by the 2 other gods of creation; these three are separate from the other gods or kami of Japan.”

Once again, as we looked into the primary resources we found that he forgot the next paragraph where there were two other deities, “The five Deities in the above list are separate Heavenly Deities” (p.15 Kojiki). Despite that the original three deities (3 gods) came into existence he Christianizes the myth to be like the Bible.

Kikawa’s Mission Statement on his website basically explains his methodology: “The Creator God of the Bible is not a foreign God. He loves indigenous people and has been a part of their history and culture from the beginning.”

In his video on the Japanese culture he states that we need “to look deeper to find how God has revealed himself in Japanese culture” (Video God’s Fingerprints in Japan by Aloha Ke Akua Ministries).

Notice he says revealed in it, not to it. There is a major difference. This carries the meaning that God has put himself inside their (religious) traditions as stated in the video, “for it is in God’s diversity that he gave the Japanese people their culture and it is in the culture they can find their identity in God.” Yet the Bible says it differently: God had not revealed himself to the Gentiles as he did to Israel. They were foreigners, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and to God (Ephesians 2:11-12).

Yet Kikawa’s premise (referring to Romans 1) is that “The Bible says that all people had a knowledge of the creator. If this is true then we should find a creator God within the history and culture of Japan….”

Kikawa would have us believe that much of the culture they have today came through Buddhism. If God put it there, then we must accept Kikawa's false premise that God gave them the religion of Buddhism. If this is the truth, as Kikawa asserts, then God gave the Kojiki on Shintoism, and we must accept this as well as the beliefs of other religions.

The Truth:

And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. (Exodus 33:19)

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

About Me

Check your daily "HERESCOPE." Herescope is an online journal revealing heresies and false teachings affecting the church today. Copyright 2005-2017 held by the author, IRG, Inc., or Discernment Ministries, Inc. unless otherwise noted. Herescope is a term coined by Lynn Leslie literally meaning "scoping out a heresy." Herescope began as a regular magazine column in The Christian Conscience magazine published during 1995-1998 by IRG, Inc. The Discernment Research Group is an ad hoc fellowship of Christian researchers with roots dating back to 1985. For more articles, books, and newsletters go to http://www.discernment-ministries.org.